Passage
PREPARING FOR GAS ATTACKS DURING WORLD WAR II
The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese introduced America to the world theater of World War II. What was 1 unique about this battle was that American citizens 2 experienced it to be the first attack on American soil in what was then recent memory. Throughout World War I, Americans mostly felt 3 having secured in their homes. 4 Moreover, the changing times and the audacity of nationalistic world powers raised questions as to the need for civilian defense.
Germany unleashed the lengthiest bombing 5 campaign on the war of the people of London primarily to weaken British morale. Later, the Allied forces would firebomb the German city of 6 Dresden, housing an almost entirely civilian population and had incidental wartime production.
[1] 7 Early, on Britain and the United States enacted an emergency measure to protect their youth population. [2] 8 The highest priority was the protection of children from possible attack. [3] A 9 bulky concern was the exposure to gas attack, an effective weapon against unwitting urban dwellers. [4] Immediately after Pearl Harbor, thousands of military training masks were rushed to people living on the islands. 10
[5] Instead, Hawaiian officials produced an expedient: a hood mask 11 made up of a bunny, complete with long ears. [6] This would lead to further improvisation in the protection of the child civilian population. [7] The Sun Rubber Company designed a mask based on the universally recognized Walt Disney cartoon figure 12 Mickey Mouse – the Mickey Mouse gas mask – was then approved by the Chemical Warfare Service of the U.S. Army, with the assumption that other winning designs could follow the success of this first run. [8] The popularity of the Mickey Mouse masks 13 was dependent on internalizing 14 its use in children by making their presence part of a perceived game. [9] 15 This camouflage potentially reduced the element of fear that the masks conveyed to their recipients. If the element of fear could be diminished, gas masks might be employed by their owners more quickly in the event of an attack, and also worn without interruption.
